Perishable food supply chains (PFSCs) are characterized with rising food quality and safety concerns, alarming food wastages and losses, and poor economic sustainability.Owing to the perishable nature of products and limited shelf life, management of sustainability in PFSCs is critical. Many studies on sustainability in PFSCs have considered developed countries; however, developing countries, have not gathered the required research attention in this domain. In this paper, a decision-theory based framework is adopted, where a prescriptive decision analysis methodology is used to generate preferences among the challenges to sustainability in PFSC. An integrated Interpretive Structural Modelling-Analytic Network Process (ISM-ANP) decision framework is formulated to identify and model key challenges to sustainability in PFSCs, keeping a developing economy like India under consideration. The contextual relationships amongst the extracted challenges are analysed using Interpretive Structural Modelling (ISM) methodology. The relationships identified from ISM are used as inputs in the Analytic Network Process (ANP) methodology, to generate the priority weights of the challenges. The findings of the integrated methodology show "Lack of horizontal integration of farmers", "poor pre-harvest management", "lack of government regulation and support" to be the most critical challenges for sustainability in PFSCs. The results show that organizations must work on aggregation of farm produce and integration of farmers with the market. Development of infrastructures and cold chain facilities at the farm level are necessary to mitigate these challenges to reduce wastages in PFSC. The study facilitates managers and planners to understand and enable sustainable practices in PFSCs.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present the key findings of a systematic literature review (SLR) on Lean for services and, in particular, airport services. Design/methodology/approach The authors have utilised an SLR methodology proposed by Denyer and Tranfield (2009). A total of 23 papers published in 18 scientific journals have been systematically reviewed for evaluating and establishing the current status of Lean for airport services. Findings It was observed that there are no journal publications on the use of Lean in UK airport services. Although value stream mapping has been widely accepted as a powerful Lean tool across many service organisations, its applications in airport services is in its early stages. One of the biggest challenges in the implementation of Lean for airport services is about maintaining the level of service standards. The most common barriers in the implementation of Lean for airport services may include: resistance to change, varied definitions of the term Lean for different people across the business and understanding the need for Lean in airport services as there is a misconception that Lean is confined to manufacturing. Research limitations/implications This paper seeks to contribute to and broaden the limited body of evidence of the applicability of Lean to airport services and identify areas for further research and review. Originality/value This paper makes an attempt to demonstrate the use of Lean thinking for service industries and, in particular, airport services. The authors have identified less than five papers on the use of Lean thinking in airport services and this paper sets the foundation for future research on the use of process excellence methodologies such as Lean. Moreover, the authors firmly believe that the results of this SLR can be extremely beneficial to many managers working in Airport Service contexts, irrespective of the country and culture of the organisation.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the power of experimental design as a technique to understand and evaluate the most important factors which influence teaching effectiveness for a postgraduate course in a higher education (HE) context. Design/methodology/approach The methodology involves the execution of a case study in the form of an experiment in a business school setting. The experiment was carried out with the assistance of over 100 postgraduate students from 26 countries. The data were collected over a two year period (2015 and 2016) from a postgraduate course offered by the same tutor for repeatability reasons. Findings The key findings of the experiment have clearly indicated that students’ perceptions of teaching effectiveness based on intuition and guesswork are not identical to the outcomes from a simple designed experiment. Moreover, the results of the experiment provided a greater stimulus for the wider applications of the technique to other processes across the case study HE sector. Research limitations/implications One of the limitations of the study is that the experiment was conducted for a popular postgraduate course. It would be beneficial to understand the results of the experiment for less popular postgraduate courses in the university in order to drive improvements. Moreover, this research was conducted only for postgraduate courses and the results may vary for undergraduate courses. This would be an interesting study to understand the differences in the factors between undergraduate and postgraduate teaching effectiveness. Practical implications The outcome of this experiment would help everyone who is involved in teaching to understand the factors and their influences to improve students’ satisfaction scores during the delivery of teaching. Originality/value This paper shows how experimental design as a pure manufacturing technique can be extended to a HE setting.

This qualitative inductive research explores the potential benefits for the Scandinavian economy and ports through the implementation of the Northern Sea Route (NSR) as an alternative for container shipping to the established Southern route through the Suez Canal. To extract expert's opinions and address these objectives, we utilised in-depth face-to-face semi-structured interviews through purposive sampling in a single case study setting. The analysis of the data demonstrates that the commercialisation of NSR can yield benefits for the Scandinavian economy (e.g. GDP increase, jobs creation) and reveals the benefits of Scandinavian ports (e.g. ECA's, flexibility, hinterland, etc.) compared to other ports in North West Europe, which potentially grasp the NSR as an opportunity. However, it is highlighted that this can only be achieved if Scandinavian countries are proactive and secure their involvement.

Cyberattacks have been rapidly increasing over the years, resulting to big financial losses to businesses for recovery, regulatory sanctions, as well as collateral damages, such as reputation and trust. In this respect, the maritime sector, which until now was considered safe due to the lack of Internet connectivity and the isolated nature of ships in the sea, is showing a 900% increase in cybersecurity breaches on operational technology as it enters the digital era. Although some research is being conducted in this area, maritime cybersecurity has not been deeply investigated. Hence, this paper provides a close investigation of the landscape of cybersecurity in the maritime sector with the aim of highlighting security problems and challenges. First, it explores the systems available on ships that could be targeted by attackers, their possible vulnerabilities that an attacker could exploit, the consequences if the system is accessed, and actual incidents. Then, it describes and analyses possible mitigation actions that can be utilised in advance to prevent such attacks. Finally, several challenges and open problems are discussed for future research.

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In an ever-evolving technological industry, the oil and gas sector is already moving forward through the adaptation of Industry 4.0 and the adaptation of advanced cyber technologies through Oil and Gas 4.0. As IT/OT (information technology/operational technology) systems are evolving technologically, so are the cyber security threats faced by the offshore oil and gas assets. This paper aims to raise the awareness of cyber security threats and the organizational and technical measures that need to be adopted by the oil and gas industry for remote and complex assets in the upstream sector. A comprehensive literature review covering the areas of new IT/OT systems integration and cyber security risk analysis and management is presented. The results of a survey on the subject of cyber security for offshore oil and gas assets are also presented, and they provide valuable insight into the current industry culture and the perception of cyber security concepts. The importance of organizational culture, personnel training and involvement, as well as corporate engagement and support in the subject of cyber security is highlighted.

Retailers in remote rural areas face competition from online retailers that can offer superior product availability and variety. This paper explores the issues stores in Scottish small island communities face due to the residents' increased opportunities for 'virtual mobility', and highlights strategies for their economically sustainable operation. Eight semi-structured interviews were conducted with shop owners on seven islands in the council areas of Orkney, Argyll and Bute, and Highland. The research has found that while online retailers are frequently used by the islanders, the small shops on the islands are vital for the communities, particularly for elderly residents. Their close connection with the community enables shop owners to flexibly respond to demand, but elevated transport cost and lack of economies of scale lead to high prices. Shops stay competitive by offering additional services to the community, for example, they frequently incorporate the post office. Local produce is available in many shops, but is not distributed beyond the island community, as none of the retailers sell via the Internet. There is very little evidence of cooperation with other businesses, despite an acknowledged opportunity to create valuable economies of scale to cut transport cost. Any attempt to tackle this issue will have to focus primarily on the creation of trust amongst local businesses.